Combined use of magnetometry and spectroscopy for identifying magnetofossils in sediments

Identification of the mineral remains of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB),known as magnetofossils, is of particular interest because theiroccurrence can be used for environmental and climatic reconstructions.Single-domain magnetite particles, which are biomineralized in the cellbody of MTB, have characteristic properties that can be used to detecttheir fossil remains. Acquisition of anhysteretic and isothermalremanent magnetization (ARM and IRM), first-order reversal curve (FORC)diagrams, and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra were used to detectthe magnetic mineral inventory in Holocene lake sediments. A comparativeanalysis in terms of the discriminatory power of these methods ispresented. The FORC diagrams contain two distinct features: a sharphorizontal ridge centered on the horizontal axis B-c and a feature withsymmetric spread along the vertical B-b axis. The coercivity spectraderived from the central ridge coincides with that derived from ARM andIRM acquisition curves and is compatible with the presence ofnoninteracting linear chains of single-domain magnetite. The secondfeature on FORC diagrams is indicative of interacting particles inclusters. In the FMR spectra from bulk sediment, two populations areseparated empirically based on the FORC information. An asymmetricsignal is taken to describe the population, which contains single-domainparticles in clusters. Empirical spectral separation of thiscontribution results in FMR spectra that are similar to those of intactMTB, which strongly suggests that a fraction of linear magnetosomechains is present. Combination of FMR and FORC results demonstrates thestrong potential of these methods for identifying magnetofossils, basedon alignment and interaction patterns of magnetic particles

Usual care for youth with autism spectrum disorder: Community-based providers’ reported familiarity with treatment practices

ObjectiveTo examine patterns and predictors of familiarity with transdisciplinary psychosocial (e.g., non-pharmacologic) practices for practitioners treating youths with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States.MethodPractitioners (n = 701) from behavioral, education, medical, and mental health backgrounds who worked with youth (ages 7–22) with ASD completed the Usual Care for Autism Survey, which assessed provider demographics and self-reported familiarity with transdisciplinary treatment practices for the most common referral problems of ASD. We examined relations between provider-, setting-, and client-level characteristics with familiarity of key groups of the treatment practices (practice sets). Practice sets were identified using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and demographic predictors of practice subsets were examined using generalized estimating equations (GEE).ResultsThe EFA yielded a three-factor solution: (1) environmental modifications/antecedent strategies; (2) behavior analytic strategies; and (3) cognitive strategies, with overall familiarity ranked in this order. Medical providers indicated the least familiarity across disciplines. More experience with ASD and treating those with intellectual disabilities predicted greater familiarity with only environmental modifications/antecedent strategies and behavior analytic, but not cognitive strategies. Experience treating low SES clients predicted familiarity with environmental modification and behavior analytic strategies while experience treating high SES clients predicted familiarity with behavior analytic and cognitive strategies.ConclusionThis is the first study to identify transdisciplinary, interpretable sets of practices for treating youth with ASD based on community providers’ reported familiarity. Results highlight factors associated with familiarity with practice sets, which is essential for mapping practice availability, and optimizing training and dissemination efforts for youth with ASD

Rapid and objective assessment of neural function in autism spectrum disorder using transient visual evoked potentials

OBJECTIVE: There is a critical need to identify biomarkers and objective outcome measures that can be used to understand underlying neural mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) offer a noninvasive technique to evaluate the functional integrity of neural mechanisms, specifically visual pathways, while probing for disease pathophysiology. METHODS: Transient VEPs (tVEPs) were obtained from 96 unmedicated children, including 37 children with ASD, 36 typically developing (TD) children, and 23 unaffected siblings (SIBS). A conventional contrast-reversing checkerboard condition was compared to a novel short-duration condition, which was developed to enable objective data collection from severely affected populations who are often excluded from electroencephalographic (EEG) studies. RESULTS: Children with ASD showed significantly smaller amplitudes compared to TD children at two of the earliest critical VEP components, P60-N75 and N75-P100. SIBS showed intermediate responses relative to ASD and TD groups. There were no group differences in response latency. Frequency band analyses indicated significantly weaker responses for the ASD group in bands encompassing gamma-wave activity. Ninety-two percent of children with ASD were able to complete the short-duration condition compared to 68% for the standard condition. CONCLUSIONS: The current study establishes the utility of a short-duration tVEP test for use in children at varying levels of functioning and describes neural abnormalities in children with idiopathic ASD. Implications for excitatory/inhibitory balance as well as the potential application of VEP for use in clinical trials are discussed

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Clinically Feasible Biofilm Susceptibility Assay for Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant cause of chronic airway infection in cystic fibrosis (CF). CF airway isolates are often tested for antibiotic susceptibility but are rarely eradicated by the antibiotics identified as potentially effective. The growth state of P. aeruginosa in CF airways is probably different from that exhibited under conventional susceptibility testing conditions and may represent a bacterial biofilm. Biofilm susceptibility testing methods were adapted to create an assay for implementation in a clinical microbiology laboratory. This assay gave reproducible results when examined in 300 paired determinations with 12 antimicrobial agents, with a serious error rate of 5.7%. The biofilm assay was used retrospectively to test these 12 agents against 94 isolates from 41 CF patients. The biofilm inhibitory concentrations (BICs) were much higher than the corresponding conventionally determined MICs for the β-lactam antibiotics (median values: aztreonam, >128 μg/ml versus 4 μg/ml; ceftazidime, 128 μg/ml versus 2 μg/ml; piperacillin-tazobactam, 256 μg/ml versus 4 μg/ml; and ticarcillin-clavulanate, 512 μg/ml versus 16 μg/ml, respectively) and doxycycline (>64 μg/ml versus 16 μg/ml); and similar for meropenem (4 μg/ml versus ≤ 1 μg/ml), ciprofloxacin (0.5 μg/ml versus 1 μg/ml), and the aminoglycosides amikacin (32 μg/ml versus 16 μg/ml), gentamicin (16 μg/ml versus 8 μg/ml), and tobramycin (4 μg/ml versus 2 μg/ml). The median BIC for azithromycin was 2 μg/ml, whereas isolates were uniformly resistant when tested by standard methods. This demonstrates the feasibility of adapting biofilm susceptibility methods to the clinical microbiology laboratory and opens the way to examining whether biofilm testing might be used to select more effective antibiotic combinations for CF airway infections than methods in current use

Validity of estimated cardiorespiratory fitness in patients with primary breast cancer

Background: Estimated peak oxygen consumption (Vo2peak) is widely used in oncology; however, estimated Vo2peak equations were developed in noncancer settings. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of estimated Vo2peak in women with primary breast cancer and to develop oncology-specific estimated Vo2peak equations. Methods: Vo2peak was directly measured (TrueOne 2400, Parvo Medics) during 380 cardiopulmonary exercise tests in women previously treated for breast cancer (mean age: 59 ± 10 years; 3.1 ± 1.2 years post-therapy). The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND), and heart failure (HF)-FRIEND equations were used to estimate Vo2peak. New equations were developed using patient and peak (Oncpeak) or submaximal (Oncsub) exercise test characteristics. Results: The median differences between measured and estimated Vo2peak were 7.0 mL O2·kg−1·min−1, 3.9 mL O2·kg−1·min−1, and −0.2 mL O2·kg−1·min−1 for ACSM, FRIEND, and HF-FRIEND, respectively. The number of estimated Vo2peak values within ±3.5 mL O2·kg−1·min−1 of the measured values was 70 (18%), 164 (43%), and 306 (81%) for ACSM, FRIEND, and HF-FRIEND, respectively. The Oncpeak and OncSub models included body mass index, age, a history of chemotherapy or radiation, the peak measured heart rate, and the treadmill grade and/or speed. The median differences between measured and estimated Vo2peak were 0.02 mL O2·kg−1·min−1 (Oncpeak) and −0.2 mL O2·kg−1·min−1 (Oncsub). Eighty-six percent (n = 325) and 76% (n = 283) estimated Vo2peak values were within ±3.5 mL O2·kg−1·min−1 of the measured Vo2peak values for Oncpeak and Oncsub, respectively. Conclusions: HF-FRIEND or oncology-specific equations could be applied to estimate Vo2peak in patients previously treated for breast cancer in settings where cardiopulmonary exercise tests are not available. (Trial Comparing the Effects of Linear Versus Nonlinear Aerobic Training in Women With Operable Breast Cancer [EXCITE]; NCT0118636

Automated Breast Density Measurements From Chest Computed Tomography Scans.

To develop an automated method for quantifying percent breast density from chest computed tomography (CT) scans. A naïve Bayesian classifier based on gray-level intensities and spatial relationships was developed on CT scans from 10 patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and imaged as part of routine clinical care. The algorithm was validated on CT scans from 75 additional HL patients. The classifier was developed and validated using a reference dataset with consensus manual segmentation of fibroglandular tissue. Accuracy was evaluated at the pixel-level to examine how well the algorithm identified pixels with fibroglandular tissue using true and false positive fractions (TPF and FPF, respectively). Quantitative estimates of the patient-level CT percent density were contrasted to each other using the concordance correlation coefficient, ρc, and to subjective ACR BI-RADS density assessments using Kendalls τb. The pixel-level TPF for identifying pixels with fibroglandular tissue was 82.7% (interquartile range of patient-specific TPFs 65.5%-89.6%). The pixel-level FPF was 9.2% (interquartile range of patient-specific FPFs 2.5%-45.3%). Patient-level agreement of the algorithms automated density estimate with that obtained from the reference dataset was high, ρc = 0.93 (95% CI 0.90-0.96) as was agreement with a radiologists subjective ACR-BI-RADS assessments, τb = 0.77. It is possible to obtain automated measurements of percent density from clinical CT scans

Prognostic value of FDG-PET prior to autologous stem cell transplantation for relapsed and refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

High-dose chemotherapy (HDT) plus autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is the standard of care for chemosensitive relapsed and refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (rel/ref DLBCL). Interim restaging with functional imaging by positron emission tomography using (18)F-deoxyglucose (FDG-PET) has not been established after salvage chemotherapy (ST) and before HDT-ASCT by modern criteria. Herein, we evaluated 129 patients with rel/ref DLBCL proceeding to HDT-ASCT, with ST response assessment by FDG-PET according to the contemporary Deauville 5-point scale. At 3 years, patients achieving a Deauville response of 1 to 3 to ST experienced superior progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of 77% and 86%, respectively, compared with patients achieving Deauville 4 (49% and 54%, respectively) (P < .001). No other pre-HDT-ASCT risk factors significantly impacted PFS or OS. Despite achieving remission to ST, patients with Deauville 4 should be the focus of risk-adapted investigational therapies